782 
INDIAN MEDICINAL PLANTS. 
them in the preparation of cooling bitter infusions. Dr. Stocks 
describes the infusion as a good and peculiar bitter tonic, and 
recommends it for trial (Ph. Ind., p. 139). 
The fruits and leaves are considered efficacious in cases of 
boils and eruptions (Stewart). 
In Afghanistan, the roots, stem, leaves and dowers, are 
dried and used in infusion for the treatment of syphilis, in all 
its stages, and of chronic rheumatism, old joint affections and 
pains of every kind (Duthie, in Watt’s Dictionary). 
The leaves are reputed to be a bitter tonic for fevers and 
general debility, and they have been reported as poisonous. The 
leaves contain a large quantity of alkaloids, one of which is 
volatile and has the odour of conine, the alkaloid of hemlock. 
The non-volatile alkaloid resembles in some particulars one of 
the bases of Aspidiospermaq it dissolves in sulphuric acid with 
a red colour, changing to purple, and contains 8'01 per cent of 
nitrogen. 
751 . Vinca rosea, Linn, h.f.b.i., hi . 640 . 
Vern. : — Ainskati (Uriya) ; Rattanjot (Pb.) ; Sadapffl (Mar.) ; 
Billa-ganeru (Tel.). 
Habitat A West Indian plant, much cultivated about 
pagodas, &c., in India. 
Leaves obovate, flowers white, rosy or pink, axillary, l£-2in. 
diam., grown here in Andheri, and in my Thana and Ratnagri 
gardens, with four varieties : — (1) vinca alba, plain white, with a 
cream coloured throat ; (2) vinca alba, with the throat green ; (3) 
vinca alba, with throat deep crimson ; (4) Pink throated or deep 
crimson throated vinca roses. (K. R. Kirtikar). This is what Asa 
Gray says : — Tropical, erect, somewhat woody, at base : flowers 
produced at all seasons. House and bedding plant from West 
Indies, with oblong-petioled veiny leaves, and showy Corolla, 
with slender tube and very narrow orifice, rose-purple or white, 
with or without a pink edge (Field, Forest and Garden Botany, 
New York, p. 275, 1868.) 
Use : — The juice of the leaves is employed in Orissa as an 
